Elitist, Childish and Pointless!

As a busy Methodist Presbyter it isn’t often that I have the opportunity of viewing Prime Minister’s Question Time live.  I usually catch the highlights on the BBC evening news.  Yesterday though, for reasons I won’t go into here, I was able to see it live and was, frankly, disgusted! (Not “disgusted of Tonbridge Wells” of course – quite the opposite)

It wasn’t the usual animal like behavior of MPs on both sides of the House of Commons that disgusted me; although I do continuously wonder what is actually gained by them hooting like a crowd of immature chimpanzees: no, it was a very few words from our Prime Minister, David Cameron.

Seemingly unable to properly respond to the points opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn was making about the NHS, Mr. Cameron responded by jibing that his mother would tell Mr. Corbyn to, “put on a proper suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem.”

Yesterday, in response to that jibe, I tweeted, “Very elitist, childish and pointless dig from Cameron at PMQs about what Corbyn is wearing.  Could our PM please consider growing up.”

On reflection I would stand by that tweet today!

That the statement was elitist is beyond question.  In making the quip I suspect Cameron went beyond his carefully prepared brief, putting a big dent in the public image that he has seemingly tried to create that, although he went to Eaton and was a member of the Bullingdon Club, he has left all that behind him and is a “man of the people”.  His remark exposed the truth.  He clearly considers himself to be superior to those who do not wear “a proper suit”, whatever that might be.  As a Christian, who firmly believes that all are created equally by God and loved equally by God, I find such elitist attitudes, such apparent contempt for those whom the Prime Minister does not appear to believe are as good as himself, deeply offensive.

That the quip was puerile is beyond question.  I know that humour is part of the cut and thrust of PMQs; that is it essentially a game of one-upmanship and point scoring not designed to actually achieve anything other than massaging a few political egos: but when being challenged about the NHS, the Junior doctors industrial action etc, is it too much to hope that our Prime Minister would take things seriously rather than behaving like a seven year old in the school playground, or, to make a contemporary media reference, like an adult talking about Haribo sweets in a child’s voice?  The NHS is not “the happy world of Haribo” and neither is the House of Commons.

I think that, perhaps, Mr. Cameron needs reminding of Paul’ words in 1 Corinthians 13: “When I became a man I put the ways of childhood behind me.”

That the quip was pointless is self-evident in that it achieved nothing other than a cheap laugh and the revealing of what I consider to be a nasty streak in our Prime Minister.

I will leave the final word, though, to one of David Cameron’s heroes, Margaret Thatcher, who once said, “If they attack you personally it means they have not a single political argument left.”

Yesterday, Mr. Cameron lost his political argument!